Trinamool leader Arabul Islam arrested for Jan 6 clash

Kolkata: Ruling Trinamool Congress leader Arabul Aslam was on Thursday arrested for the January 6 attack on CPI(M) MLA Abdur Rezzak Mollah in South 24 Parganas district during clashes between workers of the two parties, which had stirred a political storm in West Bengal.

Islam, an influential Trinamool leader in Bhangar area of the district, was arrested from near Parama Island on EM bypass area en route to the metropolis, police sources said.

"I will not comment on the police action. But I do not know whether there will be peace in Bhangor," he said after his arrest.

70-year-old Mollah, a CPI(M) MLA from Canning East constituency and a former minister was injured and was being treated at a private hospital after the violence at Kantatala which left a number of Trinamool Congress and CPI(M) workers injured.

Islam was admitted to a private nursing home at Rajarhat on January 8 after CPI(M) cadres allegedly fired at his vehicle and attacked him at Bamanghata in the district.

In a virtual indictment of the state government over the political violence, West Bengal Governor MK Narayanan had said that goondaism was taking place in the state and that the police should act impartially.

CPI(M) General Secretary Prakash Karat, who visited Mollah in hospital, said "I have been told of an arrest of one of the main persons in the violence. This is the first step. We expect law will take its own course.

"We expect that the arrest will be followed up with necessary measures," he added.